214 MALACDPTERYGII. 



the Dublin coast ; and in July, 1840, when on excursion with him and 

 others to the West of Ireland, this species was dredged in Roundstone 

 Bay, on the Galway coast. 



In Nov., 1842, I obtained a fine specimen within an oyster, dredged in 

 L. Ryan, Scotland, and brought to Belfast market. 



I have not seen any notice of this species having been obtained on the 

 coast of Scotland. 



The Connemara Sucker, Lepadogaster cejihalus, Thompson, 



Has been once taken on the western coast, as mentioned in the following 

 communication which I published in the Annals Nat. Hist., vol. iii. p. 34 : — 



" Lepadogaster cephalus, tnihi, Connemara Sucker. 



" In the collection of Dr. Ball of Dublin there is an apparently undescribed 

 species of Lepadoc/aster which was taken in Roundstone Bay, Connemara, on the 

 western coast of Ireland. From the two British species already known, L. 

 bimaculatus and L. Cor?iubiensis, this fish is very different. It cannot be that 

 alluded to in his paper on the Fishes of Cornwall, by Mr. Couch (Linn. Trans, 

 vol. xiv. p. 88), as allied to the latter, nor can it be mistaken by any ichthyologist 

 for the L. Cornubiensis, which has been described so differently by authors as 

 to have led Mr. Jenyns to remark in reference to it that ' possibly we may have 

 two species in our seas, which have been hitherto confounded.' Man. Brit. Vert. 

 An., p. 470. A critical comparison shows that the fish under consideration 

 agrees not with any of the eleven or twelve ? (see p. 274) species described by 

 Risso as inhabiting the Mediterranean,* Hist. Nat. I'Eur. Mer. t. iii. p. 271 — of 

 these, the L. biciliatus is considered by Mr. Yarrell to be the same as the L. 

 Cormibietisis. Although in the depressed form of the head this fish resembles 

 more the minute species L. bimaculatus than the L. Cornubiensis, yet its equal- 

 ling the latter in size, and having with it the dorsal and anal fins occupying a 

 considerable portion of its length, renders it only necessary to be compared with 

 this species. In general form it difl'ers much from L. Cornubiensis ;f though 

 narrower in the snout it is of greater breadth across the posterior part of the 

 head ; it is also much more depressed in the anterior half, and narrows suddenly 

 behind the ventral disk, being to the tail compressed and tapering — in L. 

 Cornubiensis the body slopes gradually from the head posteriorly. 



" Desc. Length, 2^ inches; skin smooth; fin-rays in number, D. 15 ; A. 10; 

 P. 25 and 4; C. 15 (conspicuous, or 20 in all)=Br. 5. Head very broad pos- 

 teriorly, thence to the snout (which is truncated and 1| line across) J sub-conical, 

 occupying rather more than | of the entire length ; from this part to a little be- 

 yond the portion of the body above the termination of the ventral disk likewise 

 sub-conical ; thence to the tail rather compressed and tapering ; in advance of 

 each eye and on a line with its upper margin an extremely minute cirrus, hardly 

 visible without a lens ; eyes large, lateral, the space between them twice their 



* This genus is either limited in geographical distribution, or there is much 

 yet to be learned respecting it. In the general work of Block there is not a 

 single species included ; in the Prodromus Ichthyologis Scandinavica3 of Nilsson, 

 published in 1832, there are none ; and in the Fauna Boreali-Americana it is 

 remarked that none of the genus has yet been detected in America. 



Since this article was sent forward for publication I have seen Mr. Lowe's 

 Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira, just published in the Transactions of the 

 Zoological Society of London (vol. ii. part 3). Here I find a species of Lepa- 

 dogaster described, but with much doubt, as the L. Candollii of Risso. — The few 

 characters of the Madeira fish given by Mr. Lowe accord with those of L. 

 cephalus ; but without a more detailed description of it, any opinion as to the 

 identity of the species must be premature. 



t The comparison is drawn up between the L. cephalus and an individual of 

 L. Cornubiensis of similar size. 



j 2| lines in the specimen of L. Cornubiensis. 



